The Handmaid’s Tale Renewed for Season 4 on Hulu

Hulu is going to keep its best original series going, as the streaming service has announced that it’s renewing The Handmaid’s Tale for season 4. The renewal announcement from Hulu doesn’t specify when exactly Handmaid’s Tale season 4 will premiere on Hulu, but you can bet it won’t be too long.

Even though Hulu has not revealed exact figures or ratings, The Handmaid’s Tale has been a massively popular branding win for Hulu. Not only has the series won 11 Emmys over the course of just two seasons, with 11 more nominations this year. Handmaid’s Tale isn’t just a critical success: the show has had a huge impact on the mainstream zeitgeist as well. The robes and hoods worn by the titular handmaids have become iconic costumes, and that merchandising success has bled right into socio-political influence, as Handmaid’s Tale has become *the* pop-culture symbol for the current Women’s Rights movement. Public demonstrations featuring activists dressed as handmaids have become increasingly common, as the dark vision originally laid out in author Margaret Atwood’s novels (and subsequently the show) has become a dire warning sign for millions of women worried about their reproductive rights, in the current political climate.

Season 3 has followed series star Elisabeth Moss’s June Osborne, as she remains behind in Gilead to combat the tyrannical system of the handmaids. Recent episodes have shown that June is about to launch an ambitious mission to smuggle children out of Gilead, while leveraging both secrets and promises against Commander Lawrence, in exchange to make it happen.

“I thought it was really smart, because after the end of last season, I can’t imagine how you miss any moment after that,” Moss told THR. “You need to be right there with her and experiencing what she’s experiencing. Every second is so, so important. You can’t skip anything. It’s so important to know what her next move is. So I thought it was really smart, and it was also obviously just a very cool, entertaining kind of way to pick up the season.”

Synopsis: Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized “return to traditional values.” As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.

The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 is currently streaming on Hulu, the season 4 premiere date hasn’t yet been announced.